Grandad lost toes in crash caused by drink-driver
A GRANDAD had to have his toes amputated after a statue ‘completely crushed’ his foot in a horrific incident caused by a drink-driver.
David Taylor, 39, tried to flee after the crash. Seconds earlier, he drove down the wrong side of a one-way street in Ancoats before crashing into another car.
The crash led to a statue being knocked off its plinth and crushing a 69-year-old man’s foot.
After running away, Taylor, from Ashton, Tameside, was chased by members of the public.
One said ‘you’re going nowhere’ and told Taylor he had ‘nearly killed somebody,’ Manchester Crown Court heard.
Taylor ran off, but was found next to the canal, sitting with his head in his hands.
He jumped into the water and swam to the other side. Taylor tried to flag down a car, but those chasing him caught up and took him back to the scene of the crash on George Leigh Street. He was then arrested.
He continually asked officers to let him go and later claimed a man from South Africa had been driving the car.
The victim, an IT program manager, had been out for lunch with two friends on July 24 last year.
They were looking at a statue known as the Serafino’s Stone.
The crash, between Taylor’s Vauxhall Vectra and a Volkswagen 4x4, knocked the stone off its concrete plinth and onto the man’s foot as he was reading the inscription on the plaque.
He was rushed to hospital, where doctors worked to try to save his foot.
They later told him he would have to have all the toes on his right foot amputated.
Around five hours after the crash, Taylor, who has a previous conviction for drink-driving, was still twice the legal limit.
Jailing Taylor for two years and four months, Judge Michael Leeming said that the impact ‘could have been far worse.’
Taylor, of Pelham Street, Ashton, had been at the pub at lunchtime and had been drinking the night before, the court was told.
He pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and drinkdriving.